Virginia Railway Express, state and local officials welcomed the first of 19 new locomotives Friday that will improve the efficiency of the commuter rail service and pave the way for future expansions.
The 19 locomotives are being built by Motive Power Inc. in Idaho and cost almost $77 million total, with funding coming from the state, local and federal governments, VRE officials said.

A funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration, stalled in Congress, was put off again Friday morning, avoiding once more the question of whether Reagan National Airport should accommodate more long-haul flights.
The 60-day extension is the 14th since the last FAA authorization bill expired in 2007.

Here's the latest update from the National Park Service about the Ohio Drive reconstruction, a relatively small project near the Lincoln Memorial that has nonetheless managed to annoy many drivers heading in and out of central Washington.

Fences are going up around the work zone for the Tysons Central 7 Metrorail station to prevent walkers and bikers from entering the zone to cross Route 7, the Dulles Metrorail project announced today. Project managers want them to use a crosswalk at Gosnell Road/Westpark Drive to cross the busy roadway.

A woman was briefly trapped in the Virginia Square-GMU Metro station earlier this week after a station manager closed up for the night while she was waiting on the platform, myfoxdc reported last night.

Good morning all, The weekend kicks off in a few hours (for most of us.) Let's hope the Friday commute is a smooth one. Here's what's going on so far: 8:30 AM Update: A serious accident is being reported inbound...

The threat of widespread storms has greatly diminished and overnight travel should be less eventful than your afternoon trips on the roads and rails. Friday looks like a great day to launch a weekend getaway, according to the Capital Weather Gang forecast. But if you're driving out on Friday night or Saturday morning, take note of a potential jam on the Capital Beltway.

In the words of Metro's online service announcements, after a long day of troubles: "Disruption cleared." Trains are single-tracking between Forest Glen and Silver Spring. MARC service on the Brunswick line has just been restored, as well.

A US Airways flight that was waiting to take off for Boston at Reagan National Airport Thursday afternoon was called back to to its gate after the crew reported an unruly passenger on board.
Rob Yingling, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said flight 2032 was holding on a runway at about 3 p.m. when the passenger became upset. The crew called police. The plane returned to its gate, where FBI and TSA agents boarded the plane and removed the passenger without incident.

Update 3:39p.m.: Friendship Heights has been re-opened after a power outage shut down lights, escalators, elevators and fare gates.
Original post: Friendship Heights station has been closed due to a loss of lights in the station, according to Metro. Trains are passing through, and shuttle service is available to and from Tenleytown for riders who need to board or exit at the station.

In today's newspaper, Post columnist Bob McCartney contends that other factors aside, the NTSB had it right: Systemic deprioritization of safety is a cultural issue, one of attitudes and mindsets--and changing those doesn't cost a cent.

Don't mess with the slugs (or those who drive them).
That's what U.S. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said in a letter to D.C. Police--who said they agreed--after reports of ticketing slugging commuters made headlines last month. Connolly, a first-term congressman from Northern Virginia facing re-election this fall, contacted D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier following a WJLA/ABC 7 report last month that suggested police were targeting slugging commuters, handing out $100 tickets.

Update: 8:30 AM: A traffic accident has blocked the left, inbound lane of the Suitland Parkway after Stanton Road S.E. Update: 8:25 AM: The right lane is closed on St. Patrick Street at Gibbon Street in Old Town Alexandria because...

Metrorail will impose only the afternoon portion of its new "peak of the peak" fare surcharge on Monday. Commuters will get a few weeks reprieve on paying the extra 20 cents during the morning peak, as the transit authority struggles to adjust its fare programming.

Members of the Washington D.C. Area Congressional Delegation will meet with the head of the National Transportation Safety Board to hear more about the panel's findings and recommendations on last year's Metrorail crash.
The meeting with board Chairwoman Deborah A.P. Hersman is scheduled for Friday.

When power outages occur and traffic signals fail, I've often urged drivers to treat darkened intersections as all-way stops. Now, I see John B. Townsend II at AAA Mid-Atlantic is noting that Maryland has no law requiring that.

Fairfax County officials are pushing to ban smoking at all public bus shelters, eight months after Virginia's restaurant-and-bar smoking ban went into effect. The ban would address the "health implications of breathing secondhand smoke," said Fairfax Supervisor Jeff C. McKay...

Washington isn't the only city experiencing subway woes. A budget crisis in New York City has led its transit agency to lay off hundreds of station agents at the only U.S. subway system larger than DC's--layoffs that were originally blocked by a judge last month.

Drivers heading south on the 14th Street Bridge have complained about the congestion on the ramp leading to the northbound George Washington Parkway stemming from the reconstruction of the Humpback Bridge. On Monday, Aug. 2, the Federal Highway Administration and National Park Service will begin a one-week test of a new traffic pattern to see if it relieves that congestion.

The parking enforcement division of the D.C. Department of Public Works will hold a chat at noon on Wednesday with Director William O. Howland Jr. and other department officials. Here's a link to the one-hour chat page on DPW's Web...

There's no more than a sprinkle to afflict travelers overnight, but the Capital Weather Gang says we'll be back into heat and humidity on Wednesday. Here's a headache for hikers and bikers in Northern Virginia.

Transit services and the District's traffic management tend to get a decent amount of credit for how they've handled Nationals Park, unless Stephen Strasburg is pitching. The rookie, who is scheduled to start tonight's home game, tends to draw a crowd, which tends to draw travel grumbles from fans and commuters.

Update 6:28pm: Eastbound U Street has reopened.
Update 6pm: The flow of water from a broken valve near U Street and Florida Ave. is subsiding, but not before frightening residents of English basements in the area, who feared flooding. Residents near U Street and possibly Adams Morgan should expect their water to be cut off, an official said, as DC Water is now digging in the street to repair the valve.

Deborah Hersman, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the panel's recommendations regarding the Red Line crash are not an indictment of any individual, but they amount to a withering rebuke of those collectively responsible for operating the nation's second largest subway system.

The NTSB adopted about 39 findings on the cause of the Red Line crash and adopted a multifaceted probable cause statement about the crash, which includes a failure of the track circuit module designed to detect trains. The lack of safety culture, a failure to maintain the automatic train control system and the ineffectiveness of safety oversight all contributed to the accident, the NTSB said. The use of the 1000 series rail cars contributed to the severity of the crash and the loss of life, the NTSB found.

A United Airlines jet headed to California made an emergency landing in West Virginia after pilots reported smoke in the aircraft. The Boeing 757 landed at Charleston's Yeager Airport about 9 a.m. Tuesday. No injuries were reported among the 178...

Kenneth Hawkins, whose brother Dennis was killed in the Red Line crash, expressed some satisfaction that "hard-core facts" about causes of the crash emerged in the morning session of the National Transportation Safety Board's meeting Tuesday. But he remained dissatisfied overall.

11:30 a.m. Update: According to D.C./Fire/EMS, the smoke was actually dust from an air handle. Original post: D.C. Fire/EMS is reporting smoke at Van Ness-UDC Station. Metro is not reporting any Red Line delays. What are you seeing? Post a...

The staff of the National Transportation Safety Board said this morning that Metro's procedure of placing its oldest cars, the 1000 Series, in the middle of trains is not safe, and it will recommend the removal of all 300 such cars from service.

5:52 P.M. UPDATE: MARC Train 534 on the Penn Line will also be one car short. MARC 437 on the Penn Line is operatiring 15 minutes late due to a disabled freight train outside New Carrollton, the MTA said. 5:14...

After a major storm tore through the region yesterday, there are going to be outages and traffic issues to deal with this morning. Plenty of traffic lights are still out, and drivers should treat any intersections with flashing lights as four-way stops. Here's a roundup of some headaches awaiting you on the road.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command will conduct early morning exercises over the Washington area. The exercises will take place between midnight and 2 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Civil Air Patrol aircraft and Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopters will take...

The Federal Aviation Administration is reporting delays for flights bound for Atlanta, Newark and Houston due to weather in those areas. Delays range from about 30 minutes for Newark-bound flights to 50 minutes for Atlanta and more than an hour...

According to DDOT director Gabe Klein, there have been 303 reports of tree damage, and 140 have been resolved by the Urban Forestry department, while at 100 sites, there are electrical wires tied up in the trees, and the city is waiting on PEPCO.

Readers have asked Dr. Gridlock about mass transit on the Inter-County Connector, the controversial highway in the works for more than half a century, and Maryland officials have weighed in with an answer.
They're proposing two express bus routes are expected to operate along the new Intercounty Connector and existing roads connecting P & R lots in Montgomery County to the BWI Airport, MARC Penn Line, and Fort Meade when the first stretch of highway opens.

When I hear about construction issues at the 14th Street Bridge, drivers usually are asking about the northbound span. But last week, I got complaints about construction-related congestion approaching the southbound span. Here's one such letter.